


Building a friendship

by lynxofspace



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, i guess, this was supposed to be super short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27430912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynxofspace/pseuds/lynxofspace
Summary: Carlos gets Reggie into Fortnite
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	Building a friendship

Reggie was working on a new bass solo in the studio when he heard footsteps approaching and the studio door opening. His first instinct was still to hide, even though he knew the only people who could actually see him knew that he was there. 

Carlos entered with a notebook in his hand. “Hey, boyband,” he said. 

“We’ve been over this,” Reggie said. “We’re not a boyband.” He knew Carlos couldn’t hear him, but he liked to pretend. 

“Listen, I know who you are, and I know you stay here. I just want to talk to you.”

Reggie figured he would humor the guy, he had nothing better to do. He played a note on his bass.

“Reggie, I presume,” Carlos said and took a seat on the couch, right next to Reggie.

Reggie couldn’t help but smile at Carlos trying to act grown-up.

“I brought this so we can talk,” Carlos said and put the notebook and a pen on the table.

Reggie didn’t know what to do. He should ask Julie before he talked to her family right? He knew he should, but he felt kind of lonely in the studio all by himself. Nobody but Julie would believe him anyway, right, so it wasn’t the end of the world? He grabbed the pen and wrote “Hey, Carlos. I’m Reggie.”

“I knew it!” Carlos yelled. “So what’s it like to be a ghost?”

“Weird,” he wrote. “But not as bad as you would think.”

“Have you seen my mom?”

The hopefulness on Carlos’s face broke Reggie. “No, I’m sorry, dude.”

“That’s okay,” he said, and paused for a second. “So do you want to hang out?”

Hang out? They couldn’t even talk to each other without pen and paper. 

“You can lift things, right? Wanna try a video game?”

Reggie wasn’t sure if he meant “try” as in ‘see if he physically could’ or if he thought they didn’t have video games in 1995, but he didn’t care. “Sure.”

He followed Carlos into the house and they sat down on the couch in front of the tv together. 

Carlos grabbed his controller and pointed at the second one. He let out a little gasp when the controller floated over to the couch. “That is so cool.”

Reggie watched Carlos turn on navigate menus on what he learned was a PlayStation 4. He vaguely remembered what a PlayStation was from back in the 90s, though he never got to buy one himself, and the fact that they were only on 4 was strangely comforting. 

Carlos explained the premise of the game, which was apparently called Fortnite. You and 99 other people landed together on an island and you had to find weapons and kill the other players, or “eliminate” as they called it. Seemed simple enough. “Don’t worry, we’ll be on the same team so I can carry you.”

Apparently carrying people was a thing in this game. 

“You’re on Julie’s account. She won’t mind, she doesn’t play much,” Carlos explained.

A blue bus was flying across the screen. Characters were jumping out of it. 

“Press X to exit the bus, and then tilt the right stick down. Try to make it to the blue marker.” 

Reggie did what he was told and landed on top of a house. He didn’t know what to do so he picked up the notebook. 

“Use your pickaxe to break through the roof,” Carlos said before Reggie had started writing, then when Reggie still didn’t move he added “The right trigger. R2. Yeah that one.”

Reggie had a million questions, sometimes he had time to pick up the notebook and sometimes he was almost convinced Carlos could read his mind. “Why is this one blue and this one green?” “Will I die if I jump down from here?” “What’s this storm they keep talking about?” 

After a few matches he was starting to get the hang of it, he thought, he had even gotten a few kills all by himself. He was about to get another one when Ray walked in and asked Carlos who he was talking to. Luckily Carlos was a quick thinker and told his dad he was talking to his friend Liam over voice chat, and luckily Ray hadn’t seen the second controller floating in the air from where he was standing. 

“You know, you’re not that bad, we should do this more,” Carlos said once his dad was gone. 

Reggie smiled, he liked the idea of interacting with more people. He loved his friends and all, but he went from having a pretty big social circle to only interacting with 3 people overnight, 4 if you counted Willie, but he and Alex mostly wanted to be alone. 

They played another couple of matches before Julie walked in. Her loud steps made him believe he was in trouble. “Before you get mad, he knew who I was and he invited me in.”  
“What’s going on here?” she asked sternly, mostly aimed at Carlos. 

“I’m teaching Reggie to play Fortnite,” Carlos said, as if teaching a ghost to play a video game was the most normal thing in the world. “He’s…. not great.”

“He just told me I wasn’t that bad,” Reggie said in his high pitched tone.

“I think you offended him,” Julie said, laughing, there was no more anger in her voice. “Anyway, dad said dinner is ready.” She turned to walk away. 

“Wait,” Carlos said. “Ask Reggie if he wants to play more tomorrow.”

“Sure,” Reggie said. 

“He says ‘sure’” 

“Yes!” 

___________________________________

Reggie had been told multiple times not to enter the house without permission, but they were all asleep so they wouldn’t mind, right? He turned on the light in the living room and looked around for the controller he had used before. He hadn’t really been paying attention when Carlos had turned on the playstation earlier but he managed to enter the game and start up a match. He made sure the volume was low enough that it wouldn’t wake anybody. 

“I saw the lights were on. Reggie, what are you doing here?”

Reggie jumped when he heard Luke’s voice behind him. “Carlos taught me to play this game, and then he told me I was bad at it, so I figured I’d sneak in some practice.” He turned his attention back to the screen and immediately got killed. 

“He has a point,” Luke joked. 

“Hey, it’s not easy.” Reggie faked an offended tone. He never really got offended when Luke made fun of him. “Do you want to join? I think I remember how to add a second player.”

“Sure.”

_____________________________________

They were lucky Julie was the first one awake that day because when the sun came up Luke and Reggie were still deeply invested in the game. “Get him, get him, he’s over there!”

“I’m trying!”

“What would you have done if I were my dad right now?” Julie asked. 

Both of the boys jumped in their seats. Reggie had assumed he would hear if someone walked down the stairs, though he was clearly wrong about that. “Turn it off really fast?” he tried.

She gave him a look. 

“Would it be so bad if he knew?” Luke asked. “Flynn knows and now Carlos does too. Maybe he wouldn’t mind.”

“But what if he does? What if he makes me quit the band?”

“Ray wouldn’t do that. He’s awesome,” Reggie said.

“I’ll think about it, okay?”

“Think about what?” Carlos asked, but was immediately distracted by the TV. “Hey, is Reggie playing? Who’s the other one?”

“That’s Luke.”

“Tell him I hope he doesn’t mind that I used his account,” Reggie told Julie.

“Reggie hopes you don’t mind that he used your account.”

“Nah, I need all the XP I can get, I’m behind on my battle pass.”

Reggie didn’t know what that meant, but he was happy Carlos didn’t mind.

“Though if you’re gonna keep playing you should make your own accounts.” Carlos face lit up with an idea. “And then we could all play together. Julie can use the Switch and I can play on my phone.”

“I don’t want to spend my Saturday playing video games,” Julie said. 

“Please,” Luke and Reggie said at almost the same time. 

“What about Alex?” she tried. 

“Him and Willie are travelling” Luke said and made air quotes at “travelling.” “That’s what they call it, it’s really just poofing from city to city.”

“Fine, I’ll play a couple of games.”

“Yes!” the boys said in unison. 

One match turned into five, then ten, and then it was suddenly dinner time.

“Just play a match while we eat,” Julie said. “We’ll try to be quick.”


End file.
